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Book Review: How to Know the Birds by Ted Floyd

March 18, 2019 at 8:00 am by Claudia

Today I am sharing my review of How to Know the Birds by Ted Floyd. Thank you to National Geographic and TLC Book Tours for supplying a review copy of this book.

About the Book:

Become a better birder with brief portraits of 200 top North American birds. This friendly, relatable book is a celebration of the art, science, and delights of bird-watching.

How to Know the Birds introduces a new, holistic approach to bird-watching by noting how behaviors, settings, and seasonal cycles connect with shape, song, color, gender, age distinctions, and other features traditionally used to identify species. With short essays on 200 observable species, expert author Ted Floyd guides us through a year of becoming a better birder, each species representing another useful lesson: from explaining scientific nomenclature to noting how plumage changes with age, from chronicling migration patterns to noting hatchling habits. Dozens of endearing pencil sketches accompany Floyd’s charming prose, making this book a unique blend of narrative and field guide. A pleasure for birders of all ages, this witty book promises solid lessons for the beginner and smiles of recognition for the seasoned nature lover.

My review:

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a lover of birds, that I am endlessly fascinated by them, and that I love to photograph them. I wouldn’t have thought to classify myself as a birder, but maybe I am! I only know that I love them.

I have several bird identification guides that I consult regularly. This book, however, is different. It’s not a traditional identification guide, however, you will learn so much about identifying birds through the absolutely delightful essays written by author Ted Floyd, who is the Editor of Birding Magazine.

Divided into six sections, the books designed to teach us over the course of a year. “Spark Bird”! which covers the first of the year, speaks to those birds that birders call Spark Birds – the ones that sparked an interest in birding. “After the Spark” covers March through May and speaks to birdsong and migration. “Now What?” moves into summer, studying nesting, courtship, molt and bird conservation. “Inflection Point” corresponds to the last half of summer when most birds aren’t flying because they’re molting (I didn’t know this!) and more time is spent on bird conservation. “What We Know” moves into autumn and covers sources for birders, and “What We Don’t Know” speaks to where we are in our knowledge of birds and what we have yet to learn.

If all this sounds technical, it shouldn’t. Floyd’s writing is very accessible; straightforward, entertaining, and educational at the same time. Each essay is short – one page only. This is the kind of book you can pick up at leisure to read a random essay, or read in chronological order throughout the year.

In each essay, Floyd focuses on some point, using a specific bird to illustrate that lesson. For example, the essay entitled, “How do Nocturnal Migrants Know Where to Go?” concentrates on the Indigo Bunting, who flies mostly at night, and who “learns to recognize the rotation of the night sky around the North Star – and to fly south in the opposite direction.”

Amazing.

Sprinkled throughout the book are pencil illustrations by N. John Schmitt.

If you love birds, want to know more about them, and want to read a book that is entertainingly written, this is for you.

About the author:

Ted Floyd is an internationally recognized birding expert and Editor of Birding magazine, the award-winning flagship publication of the American Birding Association. He has written four books previously, including the Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds of North America. Floyd is a frequent speaker at bird festivals and ornithological society meetings. He and his family live in Lafayette, Colorado.

Good news! I am giving away one copy of How to Know the Birds.

All you have to do, if you are interested, is leave a comment on this post. You cannot leave a comment on the email version of this post. You have to leave a comment here on the blog. I will pick a winner, using the Random Number Generator, on Thursday evening.

Since I have to keep count of comments, I am unable to respond to comments on this post only.

Enjoy!

Happy Monday.

Patience Needed

March 17, 2019 at 11:14 am by Claudia

Breezy, a bit cold, wind chimes doing their thing. In short, a morning in March.

But it’s sunny. So I’m okay with it.

We’ve had a fairly low-key weekend. I didn’t end up going to Michael’s yesterday. But I was restless. What for, I’m not sure. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that winter is getting ready to depart, yet I can’t really do anything outside. I’m in a sort of limbo. I imagine I’m no different from many of you. So, I just have to patient. I usually am, but yesterday? I wasn’t.

I did finish Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and loved it. I’m still thinking about it today. I remember the NYC of the eighties, the NYC in which 85 year old Lillian takes her walk. As someone who is in the city fairly frequently, I also know how the landscape of the city at that time would change during the next thirty years. The old National Biscuit Company factory, where squatters live in the novel, would become Chelsea Market. The Twin Towers would collapse on 9/11. The areas of the city that were dangerous at night would become much safer. I found the story fascinating on so many levels.

I’m about to start In Miniature – How Small Things Illuminate the World and I’m also about to review (tomorrow) How to Know the Birds, published by the National Geographic Society.

We’ve recently changed our diet and have cut way down on sweets, too much cooking oil and fat, as well as salt. We feel good about making that change.

But, Don was also restless yesterday. We were both a bit down. We strayed a bit from our diet, which, I think, is fine as long as it happens rarely. We drove a mile to one our of local orchards and bought one of their apple pies. After all, it was Pi day last week and we missed it, so we had to atone, right? But I’m already thinking I might have one more piece today and then leave it. Or I might not have that piece. I feel better without sugar in my system.

Now, to get some exercise. This week, I’m going to start hitting our rail trail again. We need to walk, something that is not easy to do around here in the winter.

Music, reading, watching films, listening to Don play his guitar and ukulele, dreaming of my gardens. It’s all good.

Happy Sunday.

Random Thoughts on a Saturday

March 16, 2019 at 11:01 am by Claudia

It’s windy and colder today. A front is moving through, bringing with it temps in the 40s. It’s all relative, of course. The 40s are perfectly fine for this time of year, and to be truthful, the 60s, though nice, seemed a bit too warm for March.

I am definitely eyeing my porch. The path to the glider is blocked by chairs from the Funky Patio and the Secret Garden. The snowblower is out there, covered by a tarp. Also covered with a tarp, the former kitchen island. It’s not habitable at the moment, but I’m counting the days until I can do some cleanup out there.

I got waylaid a bit in the midst of reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk – stopping for some magazines, a book I am to review, a gorgeous book about Paris interiors – but I read a big chunk of it this morning and hope to finish later today. It’s a lovely story.

On one of the pages, there is a quote which captured what I often say about life with my husband: “I relaxed better beside him than I ever did alone.”

Amen. I often say – yesterday was one such occasion – that I can’t wait to sit next to him on the sofa when the evening comes and we’re settling in for the evening. Or that I feel better after we’ve exchanged a big hug. I feel my shoulders drop. But mostly, it’s just being here with him, something I don’t take for granted.

I read it out loud to Don and he smiled.

We watched a wonderful movie the other evening: Quartet. Don had seen it before but I hadn’t. Have you seen it? It stars Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, and Billy Connelly and centers on a home for aging musicians. It’s utterly charming and moving and funny. It’s directed by Dustin Hoffman. Lovely performances by all, including the supporting cast, many of who are retired performers, musicians and actors. It’s on Netflix.

I am especially fond of Tom Courtenay, who never gives anything but an honest, real, and moving performance, and Maggie Smith. I saw her years ago at the Stratford Festival in Canada – I must have been in my late teens or early twenties. Stratford was about four hours away from my home in Michigan. She was part of the company that season and watching her work onstage was so powerful that I remember it vividly all these years later. She has the most graceful and elegant hands! She often played opposite the late, great Brian Bedford and watching the two of them together was the equivalent of watching a virtuoso musical performance.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do today. Read, of course, and the usual vacuuming and laundry. Maybe a trip to the bookstore for some magazines? I need some craft paint from Michael’s, as well, but Michael’s on a Saturday tries my patience. My particular Michael’s never has enough people working at the registers, so the wait is endless.

We’re in that middle time, the straddling of the seasons. Way too soon to do any work outside, but it’s warmer and the sun is shining so one could almost be tricked into doing something…anything.

Ah, well.

Happy Saturday.

Book Review: How to Know the Birds by Ted Floyd

Patience Needed

Random Thoughts on a Saturday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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